why cant you use a replacement gd-rom drive and connect it to your computer to read the files of a original dreamcast disk?
if it might be able to be done contact me at martynbeech@hotmail.com and we can talk about the technical sepics involved!!

thanks
mart

Wouldn't that be the same as connecting it to your computer via the Dreamcast, except in this case the GD-Rom drive is actually in your computer? Then comes the hassle of connecting it and making sure it works.
Why can't you just use a BBA or Serial Cable and rip the files to your hard drive?

If you have some spare parts, try it yourself, you might be able to do what ever you want if you can think of something. Just tell us if it worked or not. It's your idea, try it.

And if this works, tell me, or someone with an extra gd-rom unit try it.

I don't think it'll work in my opinion, but anyone can do anything these days, so just try.

http://www.adambrogan.f2s.com/nuke.jpg

I heard a while back that you need extra hardware as well as the gdrom for such a use. There was a guy who was working on a pci card for that purpose. Also, shorlty after the utopia boot disk first came out and everyone was trying to figure out how it was done, someone in this forum had exchanged the gdrom laser with the laser in his cdrom without success.

im pretty sure it wont work since groups like Kalisto, Echelon, and others would rip their games like that
from what i hear in the DC's short life, all games were ripped with the adapter and jsut connecting a GD-rom to ur PC wont work since there are no drivers for it
also how, and where will u connect it?

i'll rip my dc open tomorrow and have a look at it.
hopefully the firmware is within the GD unit and not the main board (although i doubt this as the drive does not appear to be anything but the laser some plastic a motor and some wires).
if the firmware (or whatever controlls the drive) is in the mainboard then it you would have to (theoretically)

a) somehow rig an old cdrom drive with the GD Laser unit and
extract the "firmware" from wherever it is stored on the mboard the edit and flash it into the drives eeprom.

or

b) somehow connect the mboard to the pc by way of a SCSI or IDE adaptor (or sloppy solder job LOL).

the only advantages to b) would be its cheaper then a bb adapter and it would enable file system level access.

thats all i can be bothered to say till i have a look at it in the morn.

oh and jralph how do you know that echelon etc dont use this method.
the fact is we dont have the slightest idea how they rip them.
the serial and bba methods are just what we "home" users know about.

psibob, I hope you can get this to work, if you do, please tell us. We really want this to work

just a small update

judging by the look of the katana5 dev kit a SCSI interface will probable be required somewhere.

the laser unit is connected to a seperate board which is then connected to the mboard (which means if the method b i mentioned was used then the scsi connection would probably be required somewhere near the points that connect the drive board (which is what i'll just call the board that sits under the laser assembly) and the mboard..

i'll try and post some pics later so people can try and help identify what some of the components may be.

More to come

just another small update.
the connector between the laserunit board and the mainboard is by way of a 50 pin direct male-female plug which would make it either a scsi or scsi 2 connection (going along with what i first thought).

i am haveing problems with the light on my digi cam so i will do the pictures tomorrow when i can use natural light

i was thinking about not continuing work on this but as i have recieved an email or two from people interested on the subject i will continue doing what i can.
however i will be setting up a small bb to post the information i find (and hopefully other people will contribute) due to troubles accessing this site at times (also so it wont get swamped uder losts of other stuff, but this is all i intend it to be for).
it should be up by tues avvy.